Defence Cabinet Secretary Adan Duale recently sparked a debate over the right of Muslim girls and women to wear the hijab. In a Quran Competition, Duale suggested that Muslim women must wear hijabs whenever in public, and those who oppose it should move elsewhere. Many, including senior government officials such as Economist David Ndii, condemned his remarks as threatening Muslim women and our democratic space. The hijab debate has been raging for years in Kenya, so we must view his utterances within that context. Earlier in 2019, the Supreme Court reversed a 2016 Court of Appeal decision that allowed Muslim children to wear a hijab to school. During the Supreme Court’s determination, the judges first had to decide whether the Court of Appeal had been properly seized of the matter. Unfortunately, despite the constitutional and human rights arguments of equality before the law, non-discrimination, freedom of religious belief and conscience, and freedom of expression, the Supreme Court quashed the decision on a technicality. The Methodist Church of Kenya filed the initial case after a school that the church owns in Isiolo was compelled to allow Muslim students to wear the hijab and white trousers. The church argued that allowing […]
